Recommendations
1 - Comprehensive disaster education, consisting of both lectures and drills as well as disaster plans for each school, should be required in all public schools.
Based on the current studies on disaster education available, comprehensive childhood education on potential disasters improves student’s critical awareness, risk perception, and knowledge of disasters (Adiyoso and Kanegae, 2013). While the transferability of this knowledge to behavioral changes in preparedness appears to be overstated based on testing limitations (Johnson et al, 2016) they are still worthwhile pursuits for communities and have the potential to be lifesaving in their own way, such as people being more likely to follow evacuation orders or emergency broadcasts if they understand the risks disasters pose, even if they didn’t make emergency kits or evacuation plans on their own. The recommendation for both lecture and drill components is based on Soffer et al.’s study on different earthquake interventions in Israel, which found that student understanding of emergency procedures benefitted most from both lecture and drill interventions.2 - These programs should be based on the disasters prevalent in the area as well as projected disaster trends and should be updated and studied for effectiveness regularly.
Resources for DRR are best spent where they are needed, so ensuring that the disasters a community or country are being prepared for are the ones they risk facing is an important aspect of ensuring that DRR can be accurately and cost-effectively carried out. However, the disaster trends for an area might well change in the coming years or decades, as man made climate change has been shown to be a driving force for increasing natural hazards (Mechler & Bouwer, 2014). These changes should be monitored and studied regularly to keep all disaster education programs up to date relevant. This along with continued studies of the effectiveness of the programs themselves will ensure that programs don’t become out of date or irrelevant to the real hazards being faced.3 - Include regular checks of infrastructure like school buildings to ensure that disaster plans can be accurately adhered to.
While this what works desk study focuses primarily on the effectiveness of disaster education curriculum, childhood education cannot be discussed without at least mentioning the important role schools play as physical infrastructure. In times of disaster or crisis, students might depend on the services their schools provide, which are often interrupted by disasters forcing schools to shut down, either temporarily or permanently (Tobin, 2019). Ensuring that school infrastructure is sound and built to withstand disasters as much as possible can help students return to school and the stability it provides quickly, limiting the amount of time they have to spend unable to learn and engage with their peers in the wake of a disaster. Safe school buildings also provide more flexibility in disaster planning, as the buildings can be used to shelter students and community members or a disaster relief center in the wake of the disaster.4 - Further analysis of disaster education effectiveness is required.
Fully understanding the benefits and limitations of disaster education has so far been a tricky goal, as limitations in study methods make it hard to determine the true effectiveness of disaster education programs as they stand today. Continued studies of the effectiveness of disaster education can both improve disaster education by pointing out areas or methods that might not be working as well as we currently expect, and ensure that, when effective, disaster education programs are receiving the funding they need to be enacted fully. The goal of this what works desk study was to see how helpful and potentially lifesaving disaster education really is, and while the answer might not be as resounding as current date suggests, there is still strong evidence showing disaster education has the potential to and likely already is saving lives, so continuing to answer that question is a worthwhile pursuit.Mechler, R., & Bouwer, L. M. (2014). Understanding trends and projections of disaster losses and climate
change: is vulnerability the missing link? Climatic Change, 133(1), 23–35.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-014-1141-0
Soffer, Y., Goldberg, A., Avisar-Shohat, G., Cohen, R., & Bar-Dayan, Y. (2009). The effect of different
educational interventions on schoolchildren’s knowledge of earthquake protective behaviour in Israel.
Disasters, 34(1), 205–213. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7717.2009.01125.x
Tobin, J. (2019, June 19). Educational Continuity: The Role of Schools in Facilitating Disaster Recovery.
Natural Hazards Center.
https://hazards.colorado.edu/news/research-counts/educational-continuity-the-role-of-schools-in-facilitating-disaster-recovery
